Ten-Eyed Man

Calo Nord

2007-09-20T08:17:00.000-07:00

Calo Nord was supposed to be the Boba Fett of his day, 4000 years before Boba was a twinkling in his father’s genetic material. Compared to any version of either Fett, however, Calo falls rather short. He shouldn’t feel too badly, though; almost everyone falls short of the illustrious Fett family.

For 31 points, he has decent damage output, with Bounty Hunter +4 helping to compensate for his mediocre Attack value. He also has a respectable Grenades 20, which is helpful as a Bodyguard deterrent.

The problem with Calo is his survivability. With only 60 hit points and a lowish Defense of 18, he’ll only take two or three shots from your opponent’s main damage dealers. He does have the Avoid Defeat ability, which generally means that he will take a third or fourth hit to kill about 25% of the time. This is cute, a neat nod to how the character worked in Knights of the Old Republic, but nothing to plan for.

So is he worth 31 points? Maybe, but you should definitely be planning to compensate for his weaknesses. Consider teaming him up with Rodian Black Sun Vigo and keeping him in the back, well away from legal targets. For an interesting build, try him with the original Yoda, who will let him reroll his Avoid Defeat saves, bringing that 25% to a whopping 56% or so (assuming I’ve done that math right; probability class was a long time ago for me).

The bottom line is that Calo Nord isn’t the best choice around, but he’s certainly not the worst. As a Fringe piece, there are lots of choices for his squadmates, and there just might be some great combo out there that I haven’t thought of. Happy hunting.

Overall rating in 100: 2 (not enough room for support)
Overall rating in 200: 3 (exactly average, really)

Battle Droid Officer

2007-09-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

Writing a review of the Battle Droid Officer is almost pointless. The simple fact is, if you’re using non-unique droids in a Separatist squad (and they’re not just there to combine fire with your real pieces), you should include a Battle Droid Officer. If not, you shouldn’t (‘cause, you know, duh).

Obviously Fire Control is the big, important part of the BDO’s card. It works like the best Commander Effect ever. It’s like if Michael Jordan and Leonardo Da Vinci were combined and given a Commander Effect, it would be Fire Control. First of all, it gives +4 to Attack to all your non-unique droids. It doesn’t even discriminate against commanders, like so many CEs that only work on followers. It also works anywhere on the map, rather than the mamby-pampy “within six squares” of so many lesser Commander Effects.

But the single thing that might be the most remarkable about Fire Control is that it isn’t a Commander Effect, which means... wait for it... it stacks with actual CEs. Even a lowly basic Battle Droid, with a normal Attack rating of +0, can shoot at an amazing +12 with the help of a BDO and the Super Battle Droid Commander and General Grievous, Supreme Commander. Those droids that start with a +8 (the Destroyer, Bodyguard, Hailfire, and X-1 Viper droids) get to shoot at a +20, higher than pretty much anything in the game.

The bottom line, as I alluded to above, is that the Battle Droid Officer is so good as to not even really be optional in any squad that relies on non-unique droids. If you don’t have one, get one (yeah, it’s Clone Strike, but at least it’s only an uncommon).

Overall rating in 100: 5
Overall rating in 200: 5
Overall rating at pretty much any other point value you care to name: 5

Nien Nunb

2007-04-17T16:15:00.000-07:00

Nien Nunb is one of the most reviled pieces available for Star Wars Miniatures. This is not because he's awful—he's not. But he is entirely unique in that he is entirely Unique. As in, that's all his card says. He has no beneficial abilities of any sort, just the ability that says, "Hey, bounty hunters, have a bonus to your Attack when shooting me!" (It also says that you can't have more than one in your squad, because, let's face it, it would make winning a little too easy.)

To be honest, though, there's nothing wrong with Nien. As mid-range shooters go, he's right on par with others in his point category (though Boba Fett, Young Mercenary is much, much better than he is). He just doesn't have anything to distinguish him particularly from others in his class, and you usually will just take one of the cheaper bounty hunters to get the bonus to Attack against other Unique pieces.

The one thing that Nien has over those cheaper bounty hunters is that he's a Rebel and not Fringe. With Captain Antilles seeing more and more use, it's a little tougher to just throw Fringe pieces into the mix. You might also want to include Nien if you don't have a better candidate for Yoda of Dagobah's Light Tutor ability (which only works on Rebels).

Really, though, there's not a whole lot to say about Nien, probably because his card doesn't say much about him. Just remember that there are much worse pieces in the game (Princess Leia, Captive, I'm looking disapprovingly in your direction).

Overall rating in 100: 2.5
Overall rating in 200: 2.5

Wedge Antilles

2007-04-16T17:59:00.000-07:00

Among Star Wars minor character fetishism, there are basically two schools of thought. The first refers to Boba Fett as “The Man.” The other will accept no Man but Wedge Antilles (there is a third but far less popular faction that considers Admiral Piett the pinnacle of Mandom, but that’s neither here nor there). Wedge’s status as a fan favorite is based mostly on his amazing tendency to be a minor character in the original Star Wars trilogy who lives through the whole thing. From the destruction of the Death Star to the destruction of the other Death Star, Wedge goes through it all and emerges unscathed. His miniature, while certainly not competition caliber, at least captures this aspect well.

For a lousy 22 points, Wedge has decent numbers, except for lousy Damage. His gimmick is that he might be the toughest 22 points to kill in the game. It starts with Evade, allowing Wedge an even chance to avoid the attacks of anyone who doesn’t press the gun against his temple (or use a lightsaber, Gaderffi stick, or vibroblade). It continues with Avoid Defeat, giving him a 25% to bounce back even after you’ve chewed through his 70 hit points.

Offensively, Wedge packs... Grenades 10. That’s it. Well, and a ranged attack that also does 10 damage. But that’s really it. So here’s the question: why does your opponent want to go through the considerable trouble of killing Wedge? In theory, his Commander Effect may provide the answer (“Allied Pilots gain Evade”).

Great! So we just need to find some powerful Pilots and put them in a squad with Wedge, who will keep them safe long enough to do their thing! Let’s see, who counts as a Pilot?

(rummages around in mini collection)

Seriously? Just the Shistavanen Pilot and the Rebel Pilot? Can we get someone with a damage potential on this piloting thing? Because until there’s a Pilot worth protecting, Wedge is firmly in the category of “novelty pieces.”

If you really want to use him, though, consider teaming him up with Yoda of Dagobah. Yoda can use Light Tutor to give Wedge access to the Force, allowing him to reroll all those glorious saves he gets to make. You won’t win, but it will take your opponent a long, long time to kill you.

Overall rating in 100: 1.5
Overall rating in 200: 1.5

Boushh

2007-04-10T16:30:00.001-07:00

Poor Boushh. Saddled with a name that no two Star Wars fans pronounce the same, posed like Princess Leia, and only a 2:1 hit points:cost ratio.

I'd like to say that, like Zuckuss, Boushh rises above middling-to-bad statistics with terrific abilities, but it's just not the case. Grenades 40 sounds great on paper, and Paralysis is great, but we're dealing with an exceptionally fragile Melee Attack piece. Most competitive damage-dealing pieces can kill Boushh reliably in a single activation, and he doesn't even have Stealth or anything.

You're pretty much always better off spending those 20 points on something else, including six Ewoks.

Overall rating in 100: 1.5
Overall rating in 200: 2

Bossk, Bounty Hunter

2007-04-10T16:27:00.002-07:00

Bossk, Bounty Hunter is less a sequel to the original Bossk than the completed draft of the character. Rebel Storm Bossk was extra dangerous up in melee, but had no special way of closing, and was too fragile to reliably get there by the usual means.

Enter Bossk, Bounty Hunter, who adds more hit points and Regeneration to help with the fragility, Momentum to give additional incentive to close, and Rend to make the close attacks that much more dangerous. He also has Flamethrower 20, because the first 100 bounty hunters through the gates on the release date for this expansion got Flamethrower 20.

So the new Bossk, at only eight points more, is substantially better than the old, and can be considered a complete replacement for him. Even vastly improved, though, he's only okay, due mostly to the low hit points that typify the Bounty Hunters set. His damage output potential is very good for the cost, however, so if you've got the means to get him into a good position, he might be worth your points. As a Fringe follower, he can benefit from many good support pieces. Good team-ups include Tarfful or Admiral Ackbar to help his Attack rating, R2-D2, Astromech Droid or Grand Admiral Thrawn to get him in position, or any Bodyguard to help him survive his travels.

Overall rating in 100: 2.5
Overall rating in 200: 3.5 (as the cheapest source of Flamethrower 20 there is, he's worth considering here)

Bossk

2007-04-10T16:27:00.001-07:00

Back in the Rebel Storm days, the bounty hunters were pretty hot stuff. There was King Boba, the mighty IG-88, the extremely efficient 4-LOM, the almost as efficient Dengar, and the amusingly inexpensive Greedo. They were all quite useable back then, though some have fallen by the wayside nowadays. Bossk was always on the wayside, though. His shtick to distinguish him from the others is that he gets two attacks if he's next to you, but even before Twin Attack and Damage scores of 30+ it was pretty easy to kill this guy long before he got close. Given that Dengar was two points cheaper and had a slightly higher Attack rating, it was never really a contest.

There's a new Bossk in town (reviewed tomorrow). He's completely superior to this one, and I'm still not sure he's playable (more on that tomorrow). Don't bother with this guy unless you're really pushing a theme.

Overall rating in 100: 1.5
Overall rating in 200: 1.5

Darth Malak

2007-04-10T16:21:00.000-07:00

Among his terrifyingly aggressive peers in the Sith, Darth Malak is a bit of an oddity: a fairly balanced character. His numbers are generally excellent, with Hit Points and Defense being just a touch low for his cost. But with Lightsaber Duelist enhancing his defenses, and Lightsaber Throw and Force Stun giving him ranged and defensive options, he's uniquely placed in the Sith faction to serve as a solid anchor for a squad, especially given his reasonable (for the Sith) cost of only 52 points. Naturally, he has the de rigueur Sith Rage for his faction, because if you can't do at least 60 damage in a turn, they don't let you be a unique Sith Lord.

He also has a nifty Commander Effect, which he got by copying off of Baron Fel's paper back in Dark Side Commander School. Unfortunately, unlike Baron Fel, he's way too pricey to include just for the CE, so you definitely want him up front, killing people for the Sith. The risk of being a frontline commander, obviously, is that you have a much better chance of getting killed than those commanders that can hang out in private rooms, far from the fight (Nom Anor, I'm looking in your direction). If you don't want to build around the CE (and with Dark Jedi and Sith Troopers being your only options in-faction to benefit, you might not want to), he's perhaps a bit too expensive (but if you're looking for a Sith beatstick that doesn't cost over 80 points, this is arguably your best option).

So, how to build for his CE? Sith Troopers, with their 20 damage and low Attack bonuses, seem like an obvious choice. If you're using Troopers, you should probably throw in the Sith Trooper Commander for his Deadeye-granting CE. And whenever you're considering a combined fire-oriented lifestyle, you should always remember the humble Aqualish Spy, one of the most efficient Fringe pieces in the game, whose Spotter 10 can give help you reap additional rewards for combining fire. Finally, remember that the CE only has to affect the guys contributing the bonus, not necessarily the recipient, so droids are fair game as your main shooter. HK-47, 4-LOM, and the Sith Assault Droid are all viable options to be a main shooter, backed up by combined fire.

Given the long list of pieces you might want to include with him, Darth Malak is perhaps best suited to 200-point play. You could squeeze him into 100, with just the three Troopers, a Trooper Commander, and a Bespin Guard or the like, but you're officially in the realm of fun theme squads in that case. For competitive play, you can spend points better than on Malak in 100.

Overall rating in 100: 2
Overall rating in 200: 3.5

Emperor Palpatine

2007-04-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

Today's review is the scariest piece in the game that will get beaten to death every single time by one Yuuzhan Vong Warrior. The Rebel Storm Emperor Palpatine is one of the most interesting pieces in the game, in part because he's a 40-point piece with zeroes in both Attack and Damage.
The reason to field Palpatine, of course, is that he's the Dark Lord of the Sith, and consequently has some pretty cool Force powers and one terrific Commander Effect.

Force Renewal is one of the Big Powers in this game (along with Accurate Shot and Override). With most Jedi-types, you have a few Force Points, you do some cool stuff with them, and then you're mortal again. If you've got Force Renewal, however, you can reasonably count on having FPs available for the entire fight, no matter how long it goes. This eases any sense of urgency you might have to get in there and make those points matter, while simultaneously giving you a reason to put off the confrontation a little. After all, the more times Palpatine activates before he starts spending Force Points, the more he'll accumulate. Depending on your play style, this might seem like a great advantage or the least fun ever. Both viewpoints are valid.

Force Lightning is a great double-edged sword. It's guaranteed to hit and do a solid 30 damage, but if the Emperor is going mano a mano with a beatstick, he fries himself as well. Try to stay on the offensive with Palpatine, and see if you can nail clusters of enemies, rather than getting based. As discussed in the Nightsister Sith Witch review, Force Lightning is terrific against Bodyguard and Tow Cable-based tactics.

Finally, there's Palpatine's forgotten power: the noble Force Storm. I have never seen this power used in a tournament, though I've counted at least three occasions when it was clearly the player's best option. While it does only 20 damage, it hits everyone adjacent to the Emperor, and it has no possibility of hurting him. Brilliant, but easily overlooked and forgotten.

As good as these abilities are, if this was all Emperor Palpatine had to offer, he'd never get played (at least not at 40 points). Fortunately, he's got one heck of a Commander Effect. It turns out that when he leads them into battle, the Emperor can grant all of his Stormtroopers and AT-STs and black-masked sidekicks the use of his Force Points. With this sort of backup, the low Attack values common to Imperial grunts are less of a hindrance, since they can reroll their attacks, or they can get a speed boost from Move Faster. Naturally, Imperial Force-users can also benefit from this, since they no longer have just one or two uses of their best ability; they have as many as you care to give them.

As befits the guy who tricked a galaxy into making him its absolute ruler, Emperor Palpatine is a great piece whose presence on the battlefield can be felt everywhere your troops are. He does fall apart against Force Immunity, however, so be prepared for that fact and bring other pieces that can kill Thrawn and the Vong.

Overall rating in 100: 4 (at this point level, Palpatine is best used as a Force battery for Vader or a handful of Sith Witches and/or Dark Side Marauders)
Overall rating in 200: 4.5 (here you have more freedom to bring a mixture of troop types; only Droids and Savages won't benefit from Palpatine's presence)

Nightsister Sith Witch

2007-04-10T16:17:00.000-07:00

Friend to Wampas, feared by bodyguards and astromechs, the Nightsister Sith Witch is one of the great utility pieces in the game. Her numbers are respectable for a bargain basement lightsaber wielder, but the primary reason to pay her point cost is for her abilities.

Until Champions of the Force came out, the Nightsister was the only way in the game to get Savage characters to benefit from Commander Effects. It is therefore a happy coincidence that she's Imperial, with access to most of the best CEs in the game. A Rancor is an okay piece, but a Rancor benefitting from Grand Admiral Thrawn, Stormtrooper Commander and Imperial Officer is a holy terror.

The Sith Witch was also the piece to break Emperor Palpatine's monopoly on Force Lightning (not that namby-pampy Sith Lightning that many Dark Side types use). While she's only got enough Force Points for one use of it, the fact that she can use it at all (and all of it's bodyguard-annihilating goodness) while only costing an expendable 17 points is great. As we all know, Mace Windu standing next to R2-D2, Astromech Droid is one of the scariest sights in the game. A Sith Witch, however, will happily run up to them and slap a guaranteed 30 on to Mace and destroy R2 altogether. She'll probably get killed for her trouble, but that's generally a small price to pay.
Finally, there's the squad revolving around Nightsisters and Emperor Palpatine (Rebel Storm version). What's better than a 17-point figure that can use Force Lightning? A 17-point figure that can use it more than once. One of my favorite little theme squads is Palpatine, three Nightsisters, and a Probe Droid; when the Emperor and his sinister cadre of rodeo clowns starts throwing inclement weather at you, you will know the meaning of fear.

The Nightsister is a great piece, both for specialized squads and as a general purpose low-end beatstick. At 17 points, you really can't go too far wrong.

Overall rating in 100: 4.5
Overall rating in 200: 4.5

Yoda of Dagobah

2007-04-10T14:59:00.000-07:00

Yoda of Dagobah is very much a tactician's piece. He does a lot of different things, and several of them are either completely unique or shared by only one or two other pieces in the game.

First off, he has zeros in both Attack and Damage, and no damaging abilities of any sort. If you're playing a "kill 'em all" game and he's your last piece, you are dead and don't yet know it (if you're playing a Gambit-scored game, Giant Yoda can theoretically still win by stalling tactics and gaining center points).

The most straightforward usage of YoD is as a Force battery. He has the Commander Effect that lets him share Force Points and the completely unprecedented Force Renewal 2. Not a typo, not an imaginary story, this Yoda gains two Force Points every single activation, making him the best Force battery in the game (except for that elitist bit that he can only share with characters that already have Force ratings; Emperor Palpatine cares about everyone, because he's a nice guy). Not content to just share Force in life, this Yoda also has Force Spirit 6, giving one last gift before he shuffles off this mortal terrain map.

Light Tutor is another crazy ability, unprecedented and unique in the game. It makes any allied Rebel character into a tiny Force-user with a whole Force Point of his own (and, moreover, the ability to share Yoda's glorious bounty). Chewbacca, Rebel Hero is a popular choice for this, but Wedge Antilles, with his suite of "I don't die until I fail some saving throws" abilities, makes for an entertaining choice. Personally, I like to give it to the Hoth Trooper with Atgar Cannon, because spending a Force Point can give that thing a 50% increase in speed. Note that any figure affected by Light Tutor is now also subject to Jedi Hunter, which can be a major detriment.
Next, we get to Yoda's "neener, neener" abilities, Force Alter and Force Defense. You can't use Sith Lightning on him, and you can't attack him very well, provided he's still got some Force Points (Force Renewal 2, in case you forgot).

Oh, and Master of the Force 3, did I mention that? It's actually really easy for Yoda to run out of Force Points despite the FR2, just because he has so many ways to spend them, and can spend them up to three times per turn.

Finally, this Yoda's bread-and-butter move is Force Stun. By itself, Force Stun is a basic 50/50 chance (worse against most Force-users, who can reroll the save) to activate a character for the round. It's only extraordinary in this case because it doesn't replace attacks or turn, and Yoda has Master of the Force 3, allowing him to say, "Stun you I do! The save you have made? Stun you again, I do! Another save successful? Stun you I do!" Bear in mind you can make these decisions as you go, so you can keep at the one guy you really want to stun, or, if the dice are on your side, possibly stun three different targets on the same turn (remember that Force Stun uses the standard targeting rules, though, so you might have to move to get a new target).

Yoda of Dagobah is a very cool piece (if oversized compared to the other Yodas), and absolutely worth the points, but is not a piece for new or inexperienced players. His collection of weird abilities and the Force Point decisions that he forces you to make put him firmly in the "difficult to play well" camp, but he's eminently worth it.

Overall rating in 100: 3 (over a third of your squad not being able to damage anything is a tough pill to swallow)
Overall rating in 200: 4.5 (extremely effective, especially if kept on the sidelines to build up some Force first).

Chewbacca, Rebel Hero

2007-04-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

If you read my review of Han Solo, Rebel Hero a couple of days ago, my review for Chewbacca, Rebel Hero is going to sound a little familiar. Once again, WOTC took an existing piece that was pretty good (though not as good as the original Han Solo), and made a phenomenal replacement by tacking "Rebel Hero" on to the end of his name.

Understand that not all new versions of characters are replacements. Yoda, Jedi Master; Luke on Tauntaun; and Emperor Palpatine, Sith Lord are all examples of characters that are different interpretations of their originals, but not clear replacements. Chewbacca, Rebel Hero is not one of these; he's a replacement. The old Chewie sported Cleave and Momentum and decent numbers. He was pretty good, but not terrific. Then the Universe set came out, with all sorts of juicy new Rebel Heros.

For six more points, you get +1 Attack, +20 Hit Points, Bodyguard(!), Repair, Industrial Repair, Gunner, and Demolish. That's actually seven improvements for your lousy six points, though they're not all of the same caliber, as we'll see.

Bodyguard is really the marquee ability here. Many squads depend on keeping a particular character alive, and whether that key character is a support piece or a primary damage-dealer, they can all benefit from 120 extra Hit Points.

Industrial Repair and Gunner give Chewie nice synergy with any Mounted Weapon units you happen to like. At this point, you can mostly just put him in with a Viper Droid, if you're into that sort of thing (but the Separatists have strictly better support for the big mirror-tank).

Repair 10 is cute, but of limited utility at this point. If you're using C-3PO to draw enemy fire, Chewie and R2-D2 can cooperate to keep him standing.

Demolish is obviously a situational ability, but really nice to have when the relevant situation comes up. Damage Reduction can really ruin your day, but a nice, solid 30 damage Momentum hit from Chewie that also ignores DR will make you feel much more manly and less oppressed by the AT-STs and Acklays of the world.

One thing that bears mentioning about this version of Chewie, however, is that he's not the center of your squad. At 30 points, you might expect him to play a significant role, and he should, but don't think of him as a primary damage-dealer. He only has one attack, and a mediocre Attack rating when he doesn't have Momentum working for him. He exists to support your real damage-dealer, who in this faction is probably Han Solo, Rebel Hero (or some Fringe uberpiece like Fett or Sing). Use him as the king of support pieces and secondary threats, and you'll do well.

Overall rating in 100: 3.5
Overall rating in 200: 4.5

General Windu

2007-04-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

One thing that I really like about Mace Windu in the miniatures game is that all three of his versions have exactly the same basic statistics, down to the Triple Attack and five Force Points. As you probably don't recall from my review of Mace Windu, Jedi Master, I strongly prefer the original Clone Strike version of the character to the ROTS remake. General Windu, however, has stolen my heart.

Ignoring for a moment one of the most blatantly powerful Commander Effects in the game, the General features the triumphant return of Vaapad-Style Fighting, allowing roughly one in seven of Windu's attacks to be a critical. He also features Lightsaber Sweep and Riposte, because that way he gets more attacks that might be criticals. As a nice touch, he has Master Speed, which helps him start making attacks sooner, and finally, he has Force Absorb, which will mostly be used to cancel attempts to block his attacks.

As you can see, General Windu likes to attack. He also helps his followers discover their own inner Windus, with a Commander Effect that just grants all followers Extra Attack. Take a moment and breathe that in... yeah. Republic Commando Sev? He should totally do 60 damage a round. Depa Billaba? She should definitely get three attacks per round to try and trigger her own Vaapad-Style Fighting. Gotal Fringer? Two attempts at that elusive Disintegrate per turn.
Two of the above examples are Good Ideas. The other one is Just For Fun, a euphemism for "not competitively useful." I recently did play General Windu and a load of Gotals in a tournament, and lost (as I deserved to). Not a single '20' the whole time, either. Gotals suck, but at least now I can cross them off the list of "things I haven't yet played in a tournament."

Where was I? General Windu, right. He has one last ability which is interesting enough to merit its own paragraph. Shatterpoint is an interesting way to spend a turn. You should NOT, repeat not, use it instead of a Triple Attack, if the choice presents itself. Giving up 60 or more damage so you can add 20 per round in the future is only a good idea against the AT-AT. But if R2 can't quite tow you up to the Big Bad on your opponent's squad, you can do a lot worse than having Mace take a moment to size up the guy's weaknesses.

All in all, General Windu is some of the most fun I've had in this game. He combos so well with so many pieces, and has so many great abilities himself, he might very well be my favorite piece in Champions of the Force.

Overall rating in 100: 2.5 (at 72 points, a Jedi with no defensive abilities is probably a bad buy for this point total)
Overall rating in 200: 4.5 (now we're talkin')

Han Solo, Rebel Hero

2007-04-10T14:53:00.000-07:00

Han Solo, Rebel Hero took one of the best figures from Rebel Storm and made him better. Back in Rebel Storm days, Han was a tournament mainstay, offering 20 damage, Cunning Attack, and Accurate Shot (allowing him to get the most out of Cunning Attack by targeting figures that hadn't activated yet). He also had a Force Point, allowing for a critical re-roll and (sometimes more importantly) to be the recipient of Obi-Wan's Force Spirit. Yep, RS Han Solo had it all, and is almost completely obsolete now.

For a mere seven additional points, Han Solo, Rebel Hero does everything his predecessor did, but adds two points of Defense, three(!) points of Attack, ten Hit Points, Mobile Attack(!), and a pretty cool Commander Effect that allows followers to hit for an additional ten points if they're shooting someone who hasn't activated yet. Seven points.

In all fairness, there is one thing that the RS Han has on the new one, which is the double-edged sword of being a follower (followers are subject to more Commander Effects than guys with Commander Effects of their own). The 28-point Han, backed up by Admiral Ackbar and Princess Leia, Senator, is a reasonable substitute for the Rebel Hero, but let's not kid ourselves; the new Han is better, and a lot better, at that.

For better or worse, WOTC took one of the competitive pieces for the Rebels and replaced it with the competitive piece for the Rebels. Accept no substitutes, every Rebel squad should use this guy.

Overall rating in 100: 5
Overall rating in 200: 5

Luke Skywalker, Young Jedi

2007-04-10T14:51:00.000-07:00

While he isn't the Vader-crushing beatstick I still hope we'll one day get in this game, the Young Jedi version of Luke Skywalker is a pretty great piece.

At 21 points, his numbers are extremely solid, with Double Attack making him one of the highest damage outputs for the cost in the game (with the obvious caveat that he has to be in melee range to do any damage at all). Fortunately, he packs Lightsaber Deflect to help him make it to the fight, and Force Alter to prevent criticals against him or his friends.

Jedi Mind Trick is a cute ability, but generally not as good as Force Stun. The differences are that JMT only has a range of two squares, but also prevents attacks of opportunity. This is know as the "Look over there! Is that an emu yodeling?" defense. You use Mind Trick on some dangerous thing that has based you, then get away without the traditional attack of opportunity. The big flaw with this idea is that almost anything in the game that Luke might want to run away from base contact with will have Force Points of its own, reducing our 50% to a 25%. On the other hand, if you're pulling from the bottomless bag of Force Points that is Yoda of Dagobah, you might be okay spending one just to get your opponent to spend one of their (probably limited) points.

Young Jedi Luke won't see a lot of play, because Luke on Tauntaun offers the much sexier trick of automatic criticals, but if you're looking for a Luke with more than one trick up his sleeve, I recommend this one.

Overall rating in 100: 4
Overall rating in 200: 4

Luke Skywalker on Tauntaun

2007-04-10T14:50:00.000-07:00

Luke Skywalker on Tauntaun has the interesting pair of distinctions of being the cheapest Luke and the one that currently sees the most competitive play. The reason for this is his lone Force Power, so I'm going to talk about it last.

For 16 points, Horsey Luke presents an attractive package, with very reasonable base stats, the huge advantage of Speed 8, and the ability to both shoot and use a lightsaber for extra damage up close. If he did nothing else, he'd be fine filler, but nothing to base a squad around.

Like all Lukes, he has some Force Points, but only enough to use his one Force Power once. "Use the Force" is obviously intended to evoke his amazing kill shot on the Death Star, allowing Luke to score an automatic critical hit. Why the Death Star-killing power is on a version of Luke from three years after the Battle of Yavin is a matter for the philosophers to discuss.

Anyway, Use the Force is obviously handy, working almost like Sith Grip or other auto-damage powers, and I have actually finished a game on it, killing an enemy Mace Windu before he could get back to a medic in a locked room. The reason that this is the Luke for competitive play, however, is because of the combos available with it.

First of all, one use of the ability isn't anything to base a squad around. The old way to fuel Luke was to get Obi-Wan killed and let Luke have some Force Spirit lovin'. The fancy new way to keep the auto-crits coming is Yoda of Dagobah and his stellar Force Renewal 2. Also, if you know you're going to be scoring criticals, you clearly need a Chagrian Mercenary Commander, he of the +20 to damage on critical hits. Finally, with Han Solo, Rebel Hero around, if Luke is shooting an unactivated character, we can make this automatic hit worth a total of 50 damage (60 if adjacent). The big down side here is that the combo is fairly fragile, requiring a number of pieces to work properly, and a good Accurate Shooter can really ruin your day. Bodyguards are therefore essential, but the good news is that the Rebels are blessed with the best Bodyguard in the game. I won't tell you his name, but it rhymes with "Mewbacca, Febel Zero."

As filler or the core of the squad, Luke on Tauntaun is an extremely solid buy for your paltry 16 points. If you do try to make him the core of your squad, however, I strongly suggest you have a backup plan, as you really have to devote a lot of fragile pieces to the auto-crit gimmick.

Overall rating in 100: 4
Overall rating in 200: 3.5 (wider selection of opponents makes the auto-crit ability less overwhelming)

Anakin Skywalker

2007-04-10T14:46:00.000-07:00

Anakin Skywalker needs to get a better agent. Given that the whole of the Star Wars film saga is supposed to be about him, his fall, and his redemption, the "good guy" versions of him in the minis game have thus far been sorely lacking.

As a case in point, check out the wretchedly unusable mess that is the Clone Strike Anakin Skywalker. To be completely fair, he's from the original design run, when they hadn't quite figured out how to cost melee-only characters, and he was the cheapest character at that point who could swing twice for 20 damage each time. Throw in Lightsaber Riposte, Lightsaber Precision, and Impulsive Sweep, and he packed a lot of offense into his little 25-point cost.

Even in Clone Strike, however, Ani was outclassed. Quinlan Vos costs only one point more, is mostly similar, and adds 30 hit points and another +5 to his Attack, for the measly price of losing his mind entirely whenever one of his Unique friends is killed.

By Revenge of the Sith, a new Anakin Skywalker came out, with substantially improved stats and still in the same price bracket, but only Rare instead of Very Rare. This was the last nail in the coffin for the idea of anyone ever using CS Anakin for anything besides decorating the top of their computer monitor.

To recap, he's useless for competitive play, and the ROTS version is better for theme play. On the other hand, he's holding not one but two lightsabers. So he's got that going for him.

Overall rating in 100: 1.5
Overall rating in 200: 1.5

Aerial Clone Trooper Captain

2007-04-09T20:26:00.000-07:00

The Aerial Clone Trooper Captain is without a doubt the finest piece in the game with a giant bear trap on his back. For example, he’s way better than Chewbacca, Gnawing His Own Leg Off.

Seriously, what is that thing on his back? I know it’s supposed to be part of his jetpack, but it just doesn’t say “Aerial” to me. It says “dental braces for the Rancor” to me. But I digress before I’ve even gotten started. Sorry about that.

The ACTC, as he is known to brevity-conscious players, is not a great piece. He’s not terrible, but you can probably find a better way to spend your 23 points. With only 40 hit points and a Defense of 14, he’s in serious danger of being killed by your opponent’s fodder pieces. He does have some potent advantages, but they can be hard to get maximum use out of.

First of these advantages is his Commander Effect. Extra attacks for a heavy hitter are always a good idea, and the Republic has a couple of good non-Unique candidates for this ability, such as the AT-RT, the ISP Speeder, and Republic Commando Sev. Unfortunately, the first two are not terribly competitive pieces, and the last one is better paired with Republic Commando Boss for the same effect.

Another advantage is Spotter 20. Adding 20 more damage to an attack while also giving it a +4 to hit is a win-win, right? Again, not so much. First, you have to spend your turn on combining fire, so you have to hang this fragile pieces out somewhere and leave him there. Worse, he has to be within six squares of the target to use Spotter, which is hideously dangerous for this brittle, brittle Captain. Finally, giving up his turn to Spotter means that he doesn’t get an “end of turn” in which to use his Commander Effect, so you can only use one of his main advantages per round.

The last advantage for the poor Cap’n is an Attack of +10 for 20 damage, with Flight to help him get into position. This isn’t bad, and he can use it with the Commander Effect. I’d plan to use this part of the flyboy’s repertoire, if you want to build with him. Keep him safe in the back rank, and either keep him within six of a powerful, non-Unique ally, or use Mas Amedda to expand the range of his CE.

The Rocketeer look-alike isn’t the worst piece in the game, but the Republic has more pieces than any other faction. You can find a better use for your points.

Overall rating in 100: 1.5 (definitely not worth a quarter of your points)
Overall rating in 200: 2 (a little better, but still too easy to kill)

Depa Billaba

2007-04-02T14:49:00.000-07:00

If you spend a little time on the Wizards of the Coast message boards, from time to time you'll run into someone talking about the notion that the Jedi Weapon Master made all other low-to-mid-cost Jedi obsolete. While this is mostly true, even the JWM's harshest critics tend to make one unanimous exception in the form of Depa Billaba.

While Depa has roughly similar statistics to a Weapon Master, costs three points more, and is missing most of the Lightsaber-related powers that the JWM sports, she's widely considered an auto-include in Republic squads for the simple beauty of Force Sense. Any power that can take an otherwise competitively viable squad type (the Nom Bomb) and neuter it across the entire map for an entire round is a power that you have to consider carefully. There is more than one type of Stealth squad, of course, and Depa is effective against all of them. I singled out the Nom Bomb because, alone among Stealth builds, Jedi always care about it. If you build a squad specifically around Jedi and their melee strength, you are officially licensed not to care about Commander Bacara's squad of well-hidden ninja nancy-boys. You still have to get across the board under a withering hail of blaster fire, but if they're all stealthy when you get there, boo-hoo. A lightsaber doesn't need to target you from a distance, and congratulations to you for making your opponent waste a bunch of points on Stealth. On the other hand, a Nom Bomb squad relies on not only being hidden, but being personally explosive as well. This makes Depa's Force-powered visual acuity doubly important, as an exposed Nom Bomb is a mostly helpless one as well.

Besides her one power that's unique in the game, Depa is a perfectly reasonable fighter, sporting Lightsaber Deflect (the discerning Jedi's favorite way to make it across the field to cut up the shooter) and Vaapad-style Fighting. Depa is the only piece in the game so far who can get so many criticals and doesn't have "Windu" in her name somewhere (and she costs less than half what the cheapest version of Mace does).

To recap, Depa is a fine choice if you're planning to make an all-Jedi squad, even if all she does is standard fighting. She's a must-have if you're making a squad around shooters (or one very powerful shooter), because super-stealth is a major factor against such squads.

Overall rating in 100: 4
Overall rating in 200: 4.5

Even Piell

2007-04-02T14:48:00.000-07:00

You know that one Jedi master? The short one, with the pointy ears? No, not Yoda. No, that one who costs three points more than a Jedi Weapon Master, and is generally not as good, but has one unique Force Power to set him apart? No, not Depa Billaba. I said "he," didn't I? I'm talking about Even Piell, one of the most overshadowed characters and pieces in Star Wars.

Monsieur Piell had the misfortune of being released in the same set as both Depa Billaba and the Jedi Weapon Master, either of which is pretty much just better than him, and of looking quite a bit like one of the most famous characters in Star Wars, but somehow less cool.

On his own merits, Even isn't bad. He's got the requisite Double Attack, a reasonable number of Force Points, good numbers, Lightsabers Block and Sweep, and Mettle, a power unique to him in the game. Mettle means that any time he uses a Force Point to reroll something, he gets a +4 to the roll. This is very cool, or would be on a character with Force Renewal and/or Master of the Force. The problem is that Even will most likely want to use this power on Lightsaber Block saves, and he can't, because then he'll have used his Force Point for the turn already. He also only has four FPs to begin with, and while that's above average, it still means that Mettle can matter an absolute maximum of four times in a game.

He's not bad; he really isn't. He just costs the same as Depa Billaba, who trades Mettle and Lightsaber Block for Vaapad-Style Fighting, Lightsaber Deflect, and Force Sense, which is strictly better. This wouldn't be a death sentence if it was just a question of using both Depa and Even, but the non-Unique Jedi Weapon Master trades Mettle for a list of lightsaber-related powers as long as your arm, with only a slight loss in numbers to offset it. No matter how many points you have left, you should be using JWMs instead of Even Piell, I'm sorry to say.
Of course, the above applies only to competitive play and the bleeding edge of efficiency (as my reviews almost always do). If you want to use Piell over a JWM, you aren't losing that much (unless you have Commander Effects that only apply to non-Uniques), and you might do just fine with him. But if you're working on your next big tournament squad, the JWM is the better bet, even if the only advantage he brings you is that he comes with a three-point savings. One Ugnaught Demolitionist can be the difference between victory and defeat.

Overall rating in 100: 2
Overall rating in 200: 3

Count Dooku

2007-03-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

Count Dooku is generally underappreciated. Since he came out in the same set as Darth "Can Theoretically Do 120 Damage In A Turn" Maul and was costed similarly, he was sort of ignored for a while. However, in the generally extremely dubious comparison of which of these two pieces would win in a one-on-one fight, the nod pretty much has to go to Dooku. Seriously.

An Attack of +16 is almost as good as it gets. A Defense of 21 is also excellent, with Lightsaber Duelist giving a situational-but-awesome +4 to that. Hence, Dooku hits CS Maul on a '5,' but Maul needs an '11' to hit him back. That pretty much takes care of the Dooku's Double Attack versus Maul's Triple Attack problem.

Add to this the fact that Dooku can throw 30 damage on to Maul before they get into melee range, and that Dooku has Lightsaber Block versus Maul's no defensive abilities at all, and you can see why Dooku is really the better fighter.

But, as I said earlier, this exercise is generally pretty dubious. The miniatures game is not played in one-on-one fights, or it would be pretty dull (I wouldn't play it, anyway). The question with a given piece is, "What can I do with this guy in terms of squad construction?"

The answer for the modern Separatist player is, sadly, "Lose." I've said it before (enough times that I'm running out of ways to say it), but the Sith-type Separatists are pretty much never worth the points, since there is very little they can do to synergize with the rest of their droid-oriented faction. The one major exception for Dooku is the old "Shock Therapy" squad, featuring him and Darth Sidious in a 100-point squad. This was extremely effective back in the day, but will usually suffer in the modern competitive environment (Darth Bane needs to be hit by no fewer than seven Sith Lightnings in order to die from it). In higher point totals, Dooku doesn't really get any better. Once there can be some concentrated fire against him, his respectable Defense and Hit Points will still crumple too fast to justify his 52-point cost.

Count Dooku was a great piece in his era, but is basically outdated now. Bummer; I really like Christopher Lee.

Overall rating in 100: 2.5
Overall rating in 200: 2

Kit Fisto

2007-03-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

If you were playing Star Wars Miniatures back in the (original) Clone Strike era, you may have been aware of the community’s slow realization that 30ish point characters with Melee Attack and only one attack (such as a number of the CS Jedi) are generally pretty crappy. Kit Fisto is an exception.

All of the Clone Strike Jedi have some sort of shtick to set them apart from the others, since Unique characters should be, well, unique. Kit’s is his Commander Effect, one of the easiest ways in the game to get one of the biggest bonuses to Attack rating. +4 to hit is huge, and most enemy pieces will wind up wounded at some point (and if not, you’ve got bigger problems).

Kit’s CE has gotten even better since Champions of the Force. Not only did he benefit from everyone’s favorite loudmouth, Mas Amedda, the Republic got some real shooters in that set. Kit remains the best way the Republic has to enhance the Attack ratings of shooters (if you’re only looking to enhance melee pieces, consider Tarfful instead). The various Republic Commandos (except for Boss, who isn’t a follower) can all benefit greatly from +4 to hit, and no one really suffers for it.

In and of himself, Fisto is a respectable fighter. While he only has the one attack, he at least has Lightsaber Precision to up his damage a little, and Lightsaber Sweep to clear out weenies (or wound several targets at once, triggering his CE). His numbers are reasonably solid (if not spectacular). The big problem is that if you’re using him for his CE, you don’t want him in the thick of the fight, as he lacks any sort of defensive abilities other than a reasonably high Hit Point total. In the Mas Amedda era, consider letting him skirt the edges of the fight to kill support and fodder, while his followers shoot towards the real action.

Of the Clone Strike Jedi, Kit is one of the most playable pieces in the current environment. Use and enjoy.

Overall rating in 100: 2.5 (hard to use commanders much at this low total)
Overall rating in 200: 3.5 (much better support here)

Nexu

2007-03-05T16:14:00.000-08:00

Say what you will about the Nexu, no other piece in the game has a plural which is a completely different sci-fi sounding word: "Nexus." This is not a word that refers to a whole bunch of multi-legged bug kitties; it's supposed to be the thing that you have to take a desperate risk and plunge your spaceship into headlong if you're going to thwart the Big Bad Evil Guy, despite the very real risk that something farfetched will happen to you. But I digress.

The Nexu is one of those pieces I can never make up my mind about, even disregarding the pluralization issues. On paper, 15 points for 50 hit points, Speed 8, Stealth, and a Double Attack enhanced by Ambush is fantastic. In practice, Savage characters are really easy for your opponent to manipulate, and Speed 8 just makes it more likely that your poor Nexu is going to run off and get in a bunch of trouble that your other pieces can't catch up to help him with.

There is Empathy, of course. A Savage character who is within six squares of a Varactyl Wrangler or Nightsister Sith Witch becomes a calm, level-headed soul of discretion, eager to do exactly what you tell it and even benefit from Commander Effects. Varactyl Wranglers, however, are really, really fragile, so this sort of duty is best left to the lightsaber-wielding rodeo clown. Given that Ambush is an initiative-dependent ability and the Nightsister comes from the faction with the best initiative control in the game, this isn't such a burden.

The other way to make good use of a Savage is to embrace it. Put it in a squad with the one character in the game who loves Savages for being savage: Exar Kun. With Momentum and Jedi Hunter, a Nexu can possibly move eight squares and ram into a Force-user with a +15 to hit for 30 twice, enough to make anyone take notice. Generally, you'll still want some Empathy available until you're ready to strike, however. In this case, the Varactyl Wrangler is the perfect choice, because you won't care about losing this six-point space cowboy, and you may even choose to kill him yourself with Exar's famous "jump into his friends' skin" trick.

The Nexu has some neat abilities, but without Exar Kun, its damage potential is probably not high enough to warrant the trouble you'll have to go to. With Exar, you'll probably find it a worthwhile member of his army of crazed, rabid monstrosities.

Overall rating in 100: 1.5 (teamed with Exar, this is your whole squad, and there are better companions for Exar in this format)
Overall rating in 200: 2 (3.5 with Exar)

Snowtrooper with E-Web Blaster

2007-02-16T14:29:00.000-08:00

The Snowtrooper with E-Web Blaster is decent, but mostly because of the faction it's in, by which I mean Grand Admiral Thrawn's faction. It could be used without the blue man, but it would just seem so silly.

On first glance, we've got a 30 Damage Double Attacker for a mere 18 points. Holy crap. As is so often the case, however, that pesky second glance is what does us in. The E-Web has an Attack of +4, and a Defense of 11. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is an Imperial unit with a Defense score lower than an Ewok's. Yikes. Moving on, we see the ever-unpopular Speed 2/Heavy Weapon combo that all the cool kids are avoiding in droves.

Admiral Thrawn really is pretty Grand, though. With a wave of his hand (and probably a shout from Mas Amedda) he grants +3 to both the Attack and Defense of this misbegotten artillery piece, and can swap its position with any other Large unit (the Scout Trooper on Speeder Bike comes temptingly to mind, with its 24-square range). Presto! In 37 points, we've solved or at least mitigated every problem with the piece.

But a +7 to hit is still really low. You should probably have a bunch of low-cost shooters with whom to combine fire. Conveniently, the Empire has a few of those. You may also want to include General Veers, to grant that all-important Accurate Shot to this big ol' turret. But that's all the advice I'm going to give you; I can't design all your squads for you, you lazy lout.

Overall rating in 100: 1.5 (Thrawn is hard to use here, and consequently so is the E-Web)
Overall rating in 200: 3

Probe Droid

2007-02-16T14:28:00.000-08:00

Back in the good ol' days of Rebel Storm, each faction had one eight-point droid that was a must-have in any squad, no exceptions. The Rebels had R2-D2, and the Imperials had the Probe Droid. Many sets later, the Probe Droid is still stupidly good.

Obviously what you're paying for with the Probot is Recon, because doubling your chances of winning initiative is pretty much always worth eight points. Note that, because Recon involves a certain amount of risk on the part of the Probe, you probably won't get that many rounds of improved initiative chances, but what the heck, he only costs eight points.

Note that in the post-Thrawn era, the Probe Droid's Recon ability still sees considerable use, despite Thrawn's near-lock on initiative. The main reason for this is the fear of facing another Thrawn squad, which puts the initiative roll back on an even keel, and no one wants that.

In addition to his main use, the Probe Droid sports the ability to combine fire. Technically, he can also attack, but he's got a +1 to hit, so you'd better be feeling lucky. The great thing about using the PD to combine fire is that you already want him to have line of sight to some enemy, so he's just hanging out, waiting to give some lucky shooter a +4 to hit.

Finally, as if the Probe Droid wasn't a giving enough personality, he's also got Self-Destruct 10. This is obviously a double-edged sword, but many is the time that Palpatine has managed to Force Lightning some 40-hit point nuisance to death by just ordering the Probot to stand next to the guy.

For eight points, the Empire really can't say no to the Probe Droid. Look at his cute little face; listen to him whimper his puppy-like desire to be in your squad. Can you say "no" to a horrible spider-like robot that wants to help this much?

Overall rating in 100: 4.5
Overall rating in 200: 5

Bastila Shan

2007-02-16T14:15:00.000-08:00

Bastila Shan gives me fits. I just can't decide how I feel about her as a miniature. On the one hand, Triple Attack, Lightsaber Deflect, and Lightsaber Sweep say, "I'm a frontline beatstick! Use me to destroy your enemies and we can rule the galaxy as player and piece!" On the other hand, her Commander Effect/Force Powers, and more importantly her modest Defense and Hit Points, say "Keep me away from the action, as I'm a delicate flower who will wilt quickly without proper care."

Herein lies the problem: if you're paying 46 points for a piece, it needs to be doing a fair bit for you. Bastila costs too much too use her just for her command skills, and she's not a good enough combatant to pay 46 points for just combat ability. Consequently, she's essentially forced into the role of backup attacker, a second line piece that handles mop-up duty while providing Force Valor bonuses to more capable (or disposable) primary attackers. Since the Old Republic only has a total of six pieces, those more capable attackers are either Jedi Guardians or Fringe pieces (the dynamic duo of Aurra and Boba leaps to mind). With the Old Republic as limited a faction as it is, Bastila is supposed to be the reason to play them, as the Unique they have. Unfortunately, she's not quite good enough to be a reason to play the faction.

I should make special mention of Battle Meditation. This is one of the most interesting Force Powers they've yet given us. While you can use it just for the extra combined fire bonuses to your squad (and that's perfectly good), it can also wreak havoc for certain opposing builds that may depend on combined fire. Since it's going to be completely useless against many squads (droid-centered or melee-heavy squads, for example), they've gone and made it completely optional, so you don't have to pay the points for it in every battle. Nice. In fact, since her only two Commander Effects are both Force Powers that she can choose not to use, Bastila has the interesting distinction of being the first piece in the game that can be a follower or commander, at the whim of the player. It's not currently very useful, but it's fun trivia, anyway. Incidentally, Bastila now shares this distinction with Komari Vosa, whose Control Minds Force Power/Commander Effect actually stacks with Battle Meditation, so if you really like combining fire and spending too much for Jedi, there's a squad idea for you.

Overall rating in 100: 2.5 (there's just no one to team her up with, really)
Overall rating in 200: 3 (the more allies to benefit from her crazy CEs, the better)

Ayy Vida

2007-02-16T14:14:00.000-08:00

The night life on Coruscant is apparently deeply, deeply dangerous. Besides obvious threats like shapeshifting bounty hunters and weak-minded death stick merchants there looms the ever-present threat of poisonous exotic dancers. Ayy Vida is one such toxin.

For 19 points, Vida is a steal. While she is a melee piece, she does have Stealth to help her get close to the target (and Stealth itself can be enhanced in a few ways these days). She has a respectable +11 Attack, with Cunning Attack to help her boost it further, and both the benefits of Cunning and Poison +20 to compensate for her low Damage score. Oh, and her 50 hit points put her solidly in the high end for durability at her price range.

Yes sir; female miniatures in negligible clothing have come a long way since Princess Leia, Captive. Consider Vida in a squad with Nom Anor, Rodian Black Sun Vigo, or Bith Black Sun Vigo to get the most out of her Stealth. Properly enhanced, she can sneak around the side of the map to do some commander assassination. This is key, because she has better combat stats than most pieces in her price range, and virtually any support piece. Ayy Vida won't go toe-to-toe with Lord Vader, but she can beat the tar out of Wat Tambor, and has a good chance against Grand Admiral Thrawn. She also comes in under the magical 20-point mark, allowing her to be brought into your squad with Lobot's Fringe Reinforcements or the aforementioned Rodian Vigo's Fringe Reserves.

While not the centerpiece of your squad, Ayy Vida makes a solid backup combatant. She can also do exactly what her job description implies, and sneak around the back to assassinate someone important to your opponent's squad. Hire her for an evening and try her out.

Overall rating in 100: 2 (she's not ideally suited to this format, which generally lacks the support pieces she's good for killing)
Overall rating in 200: 4 (the 200-point squad without some support pieces is a rarity, and she'll probably have no trouble justifying her cost here)

AT-ST

2007-02-16T14:08:00.000-08:00

The AT-ST (along with its partner in crime, the X-1 Viper Droid) is one of those pieces that people expect to win the game for them. You look at its 40 damage and Double Attack and Damage Reduction and you think, "What could possibly stand in my way? I will not only defeat my opponent, but I'll also rob a convenience store with this monstrosity on the way home!" Well, I'll tell you what can stand in your way: +8 Attack and Mounted Weapon.

In and of itself, the AT-ST will probably lose against any other similarly priced piece in the game. Yoda, Darth Maul, the aforementioned Viper Droid, all of them will beat the snot out of an AT-ST more often then not, because all of them have real defenses (numeric in the former two cases, special ability for the Viper). If you can't hit your target, 40 damage doesn't do any good.
Fortunately for the AT-ST's playability, it's in an extremely nurturing, supportive faction that will love it for what it is inside (a non-Unique follower). The Empire's Commander Effects are second to none, and you can build a good squad around the AT-ST, but that's what you have to do, build a squad around it. Don't just throw one in and hope to win, because that sort of behavior is reserved for Aurra Sing (who the AT-ST needs to roll a 17 to hit in cover).

So, how do you support the AT-ST properly? The short version is Grand Admiral Thrawn and General Veers. Once you throw +3 to Attack and Defense, Force Immunity, and Accurate Shot on to it, everyone starts to worry about the chicken walker. If you're perverse, you can throw in a Stormtrooper Commander for a +10 Damage bonus. You can also use Imperial Officers for extra attacks. Weequay Thugs are in inexpensive source of Gunner for combining fire, plus they contain eight essential nutrients for growing bodies. You should also consider some Industrial Repair, since any squad built around one piece should be able to keep that piece in play as long as possible.

Oh, and the AT-ST also sports Grenades 20 and Mobile Attack, but these are practically footnotes. Mobile Attack is a great ability, but difficult to get much use out of on a huge, Rigid piece. Grenades 20 is really only good against a really large cluster of enemies, but at least it's there if you want it.

Speaking of Rigidity, the AT-ST can run into major problems on many maps. Be careful of allowing the battle to happen somewhere where the walker can't help.

In the final analysis, AT-STs can be terrifying, but only in the hands of a really strong player will they be truly effective. Damage output is only one element of this game (albeit an important one), and the odds that an unsupported AT-ST can hit anything you really want to put your two 40-damage attacks on are slim.

Overall rating in 100: 2 (you just can't afford to support it here)
Overall rating in 200: 4 (consider running two once you've bought your support pieces)

Asajj Ventress

2007-02-16T14:06:00.000-08:00

Asajj Ventress, on first glance, looks like a pretty excellent piece. At 34 points, her numbers are all very respectable, with a Loner-enhanced Attack of +16, and decent (if not stellar) durability at 100 hit points and a 20 Defense. She's also got one of those fun Commander Effects that makes you feel better about fielding a Chagrian Mercenary Commander and/or a weenie horde. Throw in Lightsaber Riposte and couple of Force Points, and you've got a solid addition to the... oh, crap; here we go again. Another potentially useful piece thrown away on the Separatists.
I'm not suggesting that the Separatists are a worthless faction, far from it. Asajj just happens to be part of their biggest weakness: if you're not a non-Unique droid and don't enhance the abilities of non-Unique droids, there's almost no way for the Separatists to build around you. Adding insult to injury, the handful of Sith-types in the Separatists who belong to this useless little sub faction are all Melee Attack pieces in a faction whose strength is in shooting. Asajj will have no trouble getting her Loner bonus as she advances up the field, away from her battle droid backup, but 100 hit points don't last as long as you might think under such circumstances.

"Aha!" I hear you say, "Why should I give her battle droid backup when I could fill up her squad with Living pieces who can benefit from her Commander Effect?" You could certainly try that, and don't let me discourage you, but the Separatists' options here are limited. Most of the best choices will be ranged, presenting the "Loner or Commander Effect" dilemma that our slightly confused Sith acolyte has (her CE only works on followers within six squares, but she fights better without any allies nearby; go figure).

With the release of Bounty Hunters, and its 30+ new Fringe pieces, it's possible there's a great new build involving Asajj, but I sort of doubt it. Few pieces can truly synergize with her, but if you find them, let me know.

Overall rating in 100: 2 (Darth Bane can kill her in a single activation from six squares away)
Overall rating in 200: 3 (Commander Effects are better here, and you don't miss 34 points as much as you do at lower build totals)

Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith

2007-02-15T15:50:00.000-08:00

Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith may not have great numbers, and he may not have good factional synergy, but he does have one of the longest names of any piece in the game, and by God that still counts for something.

I was deeply disappointed when I finally got to see what the new Sidious does. Once you clear the 60-point mark, you're up against some pretty stiff competition in this game, with the likes of Mace Windu and Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter (not to mention the two 80+ horrors in the Sith faction). The point is, if you're going to cost me 61 of my precious points, you'd better be able to help me defeat the pieces that my opponent will have paid similar amounts for, and this is where Sith Sidious falls flat.

An Attack rating of +14 isn't really acceptable in this point range. A mere 130 hit points is definitely pushing it. But a Defense of only 19 is embarrassing. Sidious, you should be ashamed of yourself. Go back to Defense school; take some summer classes; do whatever it takes, but don't come back here with less than a 22.

In terms of abilities, Sidious is all right. He's got your basic Triple Attack, and Force Lightning, which are both nice. Lightsaber Sweep is an odd choice, and not likely to come up except against grunt armies. The thing that's presumably supposed to sell Sidious to you is that he packs Force Renewal and a Commander Effect that lets him share Force Points with the other Force-using members of his squad. This sounds great, except that he's a Separatist who costs 61 points.
As of this moment, in 100 point play, Sidious has access to Dark Side Acolyte, Asajj Ventress, and Aurra Sing as potential Force-sharers. Of these, only Sing is a competitive piece, but Aurra has better options to team up with in other factions (the old Mace + Aurra team starts to look pretty good again).

So Sidious is exclusively a piece for 200+ point play. Fine. Unfortunately, his options don't really improve all that much in 200 points, because you only have 139 points left after buying him, and most of the options (various version of Maul, Dooku, and Grievous) are in the 50-or-so-points area. You can also bring in Aurra, but the fact is that at this point you're sort of fighting to make him more useful than the Clone Strike Sidious, who can share Force Points with any one Unique figure. The only Force-sharing advantage the new Sidious brings to the table is sharing with more than one ally, but since all of those allies are very expensive, you'll probably blow most of your 200 points on about three pieces, which is usually a Bad Idea.

What I'm getting at in all of this is that while Sidious is probably going to be a fun piece to play, I'll be shocked if he ever finds his way into any serious competitive squads.

Overall rating in 100: 1.5
Overall rating in 200: 2

Darth Sidious

2007-02-15T15:49:00.000-08:00

Ah, give me the good old days, before we saw Palpatine wielding a lightsaber in Episode III, and his miniatures game representations were killer support pieces instead of mediocre, overpriced beatsticks. The original Darth Sidious is a terrific example of that bygone era: a character that can't do a lot of damage on his own, but sure makes your squad work better.

Sidious has the distinction of being one of the few support pieces who helps out Uniques and non-Uniques differently. He can share his constantly renewing Force Points with one Unique in your squad (meaning, for example, that Darth Maul can Rage as many times as he needs to, or Dooku can use Sith Lightning as often as he likes). He can also get more mileage out of your non-Uniques, granting them a full extra turn without the disadvantages of Dominate. A character taking a Pawn of the Dark Side turn can move and doesn't have to save against the effect, making it strictly better than Dominate. Of course, Pawn also damages the target, but if you pick something like the Droid Starfighter in Walking Mode with Damage Reduction 10, you'll never notice the down side.

Sidious' Commander Effect is cute, but nothing to count on. Since it only works on Living non-Uniques, the Separatists are poorly placed to make any use of it. Teamed with Asajj Ventress, you can double the percentage chance of getting that critical hit, but the odds still aren't great.
Finally, while he's mostly a behind-the-scenes schemer, Sidious can get involved in the fight a bit. 130 hit points take a little while to chew through, and his Sith Lightning can let him contribute meaningfully to the fight.

All in all, the original Darth Sidious is a great piece, and probably the only one that belongs in both droid-centered and Sith-centered Separatist squads.

Overall rating in 100: 3.5
Overall rating in 200: 4.5

Defel Spy

2007-02-15T15:48:00.000-08:00

The Defel Spy is... unextraordinary. At 14 points, he's just a little too expensive to be a grunt, but he's also not a powerhouse by any means. He's sort of a piece without a home; let's look at why.

As a Fringe piece with Stealth, one of my first thoughts has to be teaming him with Nom Anor. The problem with this is that he's not hugely better than an Abyssin Black Sun Thug in this role, costs almost twice as much, and wastes points on Evasion (which is completely useless if you're under the super-stealth Commander Effect). With the combination of Cunning Attack and Loner, he can theoretically shoot with a +14, which is extremely respectable in such a low-cost figure. Unfortunately, Loner is harder to use than it seems, as having all of his allies more than six squares away means that help is also more than six squares away. A canny opponent will separate and eliminate him. Cunning Attack is pretty cool, if you've got initiative control and/or Accurate Shot to make sure he hits unactivated enemies. This naturally brings us to the Imperials, who have Thrawn and Veers to give you both. While this is great for the Defel Spy, the Empire has the best grunts in the game, and doesn't really need help from the Fringe for their cannon fodder.

The only other commanders I can come up with to help out the poor Defel are Clone Strike Yoda, who lets him reroll Evade saves (and if Mas Amedda is involved, Yoda doesn't have to screw up the Defel's Loner by hanging around nearby), and Prince Xizor, who gives him Accurate Shot from any distance. Now the only problem is that these are both rather expensive commanders, and you don't really want to use Defels en masse (as you would usually try to do when using a specific CE/ability combo, so you can get the benefit over and over), because using a bunch of Loner pieces means you're trying to get all of your pieces more than six squares from each other, and usually means easy points for your opponent.

This is the Defel Spy's problem: he's a standalone piece. He might be some filler at the end of your squad (especially if you're using one of the above commanders), but he's just not worth building a squad around because he synergizes poorly. Personally, I don't much care for standalone pieces unless they're also powerhouses in their own right, because competitive squad-building is an exercise in synergy. If he works for you, more power to you, but I won't be quaking in my boots to see him across the table from me.

Overall rating in 100: 2
Overall rating in 200: 2

P.S. The question has come up a few times on the WOTC message boards, so it's probably worth addressing: the Defel Spy, despite his total lack of apparent armament, is not supposed to have Melee Attack. There has been no errata, and there isn't likely to be. Just assume that, as a spy, he has access to a wide variety of Bondian weapons disguised as wristwatches and the like.

Hoth Trooper with Atgar Cannon

2007-02-15T15:45:00.000-08:00

Hoth Trooper with Atgar Cannon might be the weirdest piece in the game. It has the best hit points to cost ratio there is, but loses most of its utility after it takes a certain amount of damage. It's a Living piece that can be healed with Industrial Repair (as well as normal healing abilities). It's attack works like the Missiles ability, in addition to being a normal attack. It also has Speed 2 and Heavy Weapon, making it effectively even slower than Jabba the Hutt. Oh, and did I mention the very worst Defense score in the game?

Given all this, opinions are sort of sharply divided on the Atgar's effectiveness. No one (to my knowledge) thinks it's top tier by any stretch, but it actually can be used, and fairly effectively.
The first secret to using the thing well is to use it in multiples. It requires a fair amount of support in its squad, so you should probably maximize your synergy by having more than one piece that benefits from that support. Your first stop is the Rebel Captain, who can give the Atgar Twin Attack, thanks to the fact that it's called the "Hoth TROOPER with Atgar Cannon" and not some other variant of the name. Twin Attack makes these guys much scarier, because twice the splash and twice the chance of a lucky critical on that 30 base damage can only help you.

The other completely indispensable support is Admiral Ackbar (or a Rebel Officer, if Ackbar is unavailable). +4 to hit almost brings the Atgar to respectability, and vastly increases the chances of landing some of that juicy damage.

You should probably bring Princess Leia, Senator, who will let you move your Atgars 50% faster than they can go on their own. When you've got Speed 2, getting to move an extra two squares at the end your turn is a big deal. You might also consider Hoth Commander Leia, except that, since the Atgar stops being able to attack when it's reduced to 30 or fewer hit points, most opponents won't finish them off, so the resurrection Commander Effect helps less than usual. You know you can use the speed boost from Senator Leia, though, so that's my preference.

Finally, a piece or two with Industrial Repair is a good idea. Chewbacca, Rebel Hero; BoShek; or an Iktotchi Tech Specialist are all valid options. Keep those Atgars at 40 and above, and they can keep attacking. A sneaky thing to remember, however, is that even an Atgar at 10 hit points can still combine fire. Your opponent may forget about this, and sufficient combined fire can turn even a measly +3 Attack into a virtually sure hit, so remember combined fire if you choose to play an Atgar squad.

The bottom line is that the Atgar is not a bad piece, but it's definitely not easy to play. If you're looking for a challenge, try it out, but watch out for highly mobile opponents.

Overall rating in 100: 1.5 (tough to get sufficient support in here)
Overall rating in 200: 3.5 (if you can get them pointed at the main fight, they can be pretty effective backup)

Tamtel Skreej

2007-02-15T15:41:00.001-08:00

The next time you watch Return of the Jedi, watch for Tamtel Skreej. He's the guy in Jabba's palace who looks suspiciously like Lando, but apparently belongs to some species that sees through its facial hair. My evidence is that when we get our first close-up on Tamtel's face, he pulls his visor/facemask thing down a little, apparently just to let his mustache look around. I know they needed to make sure we understood that this was Lando, but I defy you to explain the character's motivation in the moment for this bit of exposition.

In the miniatures game, Tamtel Skreej represents another piece of evidence that Wizards of the Coast wants you to use exactly one version of Lando, and that version is the Hero of Tanaab. After the dramatic upgrade between the original Rebel Storm Lando and the HoT version, I was wondering what strange new direction they'd take the character in his third incarnation for the game. As it turns out, they took him in the Melee Attack direction, which was a suboptimal choice.

To be fair, they didn't just tack Melee Attack on the Hero of Tanaab and try to charge you the same number of points for him. They also lowered his Attack and Hit Points and took away his Mobile Attack and Commander Effect. And, technically (if you want to be extra super fair), they also increased his Damage and added Stealth and Cleave.

I'm oversimplifying, of course. Tamtel is a 23-point piece that can theoretically do 90 points of damage in a single activation (Double Attack with Opportunist, and Cleave to get a third attack in against another target). Unfortunately, that's not going to happen all that often, as Skreej suffers from the eternal melee problem of getting to the fight alive.

To help with this, he has Stealth. In the competitive game, Stealth, in and of itself, just means that most scrubs can't shoot you, because most of the real shooters have Accurate Shot (one of the primary indicators that they're a real shooter, in fact). What Stealth does for you is allow you to be enhanced by the Stealth-enhancing Commander Effects. Specifically, either of the two Vigos or Nom Anor will improve Tamtel's survivability dramatically, and he probably shouldn't be used without one.

Okay, so we know how to make him survive. How do we make him deal his impressive (if purely theoretical) damage? This is tricky, because Double Attack and Opportunist on a melee piece mean that you sort of need the enemy to walk up to your unactivated Tamtel, and most opponents are not this accommodating. You can walk up to them, but then you'll only get the one attack (or possibly two with Cleave). You can base them at the end of the round, then attack next round, but Opportunist means that you want the enemy piece to activate before you attack it. Hmmm.

When trying to solve a transportation problem in Star Wars Miniatures, your answers are pretty much always R2-D2, Astromech Droid and Grand Admiral Thrawn. Either one of these can transport Tamtel where he needs to go to hurt people, but both of them are in factions with far more powerful melee beatsticks. Probably the best that can be said for Tamtel is that he's a reasonable backup melee combatant, especially for the Empire. Since almost all of the Empire's melee powerhouses are versions of the same fallen Jedi knight, it can difficult to get a couple of melee characters together for them. Think of Tamtel Skreej as a Dark Side Marauder that trades some hit points for better damage potential and Stealth. It's not much, but I told you that the Hero of Tanaab version was better right at the beginning.

Overall rating in 100: 2
Overall rating in 200: 2

Garindan

2007-02-14T15:44:00.000-08:00

The sound designer for the Star Wars movies, Ben Burtt, is a personal hero of mine. If you want to know one of the reasons why, check out the speaking voice of Garindan, the Imperial informant that tattles on Luke and Obi-Wan in the first movie. I don't know how Ben created those sounds, but they don't sound like anything I've heard on Earth.

As for the Star Wars Miniatures piece, he's one of those one-trick ponies. His stats are fairly poor, but he has two abilities that make him playable: Stealth and Spotter 30. Yes, 30. Incredibly, Garindan's eyesight is so good that he adds one Heavy Stormtrooper's worth of bazooka damage to anyone with whom he might combine fire.

This sounds great, but Spotter only works when you're within six squares of the target, and combining fire uses your whole activation, meaning that Garindan needs to get fairly close to the enemy, than stand there for a while. When you have a Defense of 13, this is the sort of behavior that raises your insurance premiums. What's more, Stealth can't help Garindan against anyone he's spotting, since it stops working within six squares. What's a gutless tattletale with great eyesight supposed to do?

Fortunately, there are ways to help Garindan out. One of these is just to make sure that Garindan gets to go last and then win initiative. A high activation Thrawn-based squad can do this quite easily. Move Garindan up to the target last, after your opponent has moved all of his pieces, then win initiative with Master Tactician the next round, and Garindan can do his trick. Hopefully you're planning to kill that piece, however, because Garindan is still standing next to it afterwards (unless you're going to do something tricky like have Thrawn swap him with Vader).
Easier (and probably more effective) than the above strategy is just to put Garindan in a Nom Anor squad. Super stealth makes it much less of a problem to be hanging out near enemies, and Nom himself is a reasonable person to combine fire with.

Suffice to say, Garindan can be a fine support piece, but you should know before the fight how he's going to be doing his trick. You can't casually toss him in with your last 12 points, because you'll basically be handing your opponent 12 free points.

Overall rating in 100: 3 (3.5 with Nom)
Overall rating in 200: 3.5 (4 with Nom)

Boba Fett, Bounty Hunter

2007-01-25T16:55:00.000-08:00

To be fair, in the era of the 30+ damage hitter, a character as inexplicably and tiresomely popular as Boba Fett needed an update, despite being one of the best pieces in the game already. It also wouldn't really have felt right if he just had 30+ damage himself. No, he needed Twin Attack and Disintegration in order to feel like the dangerous threat the fan community has decided he has to be, while still seeming like Fett.

Boba Fett, Bounty Hunter is a piece without weaknesses, which is what annoys me about him. He's ranged, has great numbers, a good mix of offensive and defensive abilities (including the devastating Accurate Shot), and a bargain cost for what he brings to the table. The only thing that the original Fett can do that the new doesn't do better is split his attacks between two targets, and this hardly matters. Generally, if you want to do that, it's either (a) because you're using a very expensive piece to kill fodder, which is dumb, or (b) because you Disintegrated your target on the first attack, so what are you whining about?

As you've probably picked up, I'm grouchy about this piece, because he's nauseatingly efficient. He's a very solid (if not stellar) damage-dealer who has a 5% chance of removing the target from the board with every attack. When Jedi get close, he gets to move away without drawing an attack of opportunity and still attack twice. When he gets swarmed, he has Flamethrower 20. When he's shot at, he has Evade.

The only flaw I've seen in the new Fettness is how he gets played. The two major schools of thought on him seem to vary between protecting him like a precious treasure by keeping him in the back where he can't shoot anyone, and sending him forward, guns-a-blazing, to get hacked to death by the opponent's entire squad. The mark of a good player is finding the balance between these approaches. Remember that Fett is more powerful than most other pieces, but not more powerful than most whole squads.

For squad synergies, you have a number of options. Yoda can help him reroll his Evade saves, as can Emperor Palpatine (by lending him Force Points). Thrawn can teleport him around the map. General Windu or Gonk can give him Extra Attack (which turns into two more attacks, due to the weirdness of Twin Attack). Rebel Hero Han can give him Advantageous Attack. San Hill lets him position himself well.

In terms of competitive play, there are very few reasons not to play Boba Fett, Bounty Hunter. Probably the most compelling of these is that there is no way to fit him into a Black & Blue build without sacrificing the all-important activation count. In terms of your conscience and sense of self-worth, there are all sorts of reasons not to play him.

Overall rating in 100: 5
Overall rating in 200: 5

IG-88, Bounty Hunter

2007-01-24T16:33:00.000-08:00

Much like Kevin J. "Baby-Eater" Anderson's ill-conceived short story about the character, IG-88, Bounty Hunter is over-thought, convoluted, and of little use to anyone. First of all, Iggy suffers from the same problems as all Unique droids, which is that they are extremely difficult to synergize with a squad. They aren't subject to any current Commander Effects, all the Separatists' special effects are restricted to non-Uniques, and there are consequently almost no ways to push them past their initial boundaries.

IG-88's initial boundaries are things like 80 hit points and a mere 19 Defense, with a shockingly low Attack value of +9 (which, admittedly, is mostly mitigated by his Bounty Hunter +6, but God help him if he tries to shoot a Thrawn-enhanced Stormtrooper).

On the plus side, he has Opportunist, one of the better abilities in the game. Unfortunately, if he's going to get to use it with his mighty Double Attack, he has to hold still until your opponent has moved a couple of pieces, at which point he might already be dead.

Flamethrower 20 is a nice addition, and he can use it on the move, which helps. Sonic Stunner is a strange choice, since the idea of using your short-lived 44-point cannon to maybe activate an opposing piece or two seems foolish in just about any circumstance. It would be terrific if there was some way to use Sonic Stunner and then capitalize on the enemy piece's weakness with Opportunist, but there just isn't any way to do it (droids can't be Dominated, and Pawn of the Dark Side doesn't work on Uniques) (Did I mention that I don't like Unique droids?).

Probably the best you can hope for if you want to get some use out of this version of IG-88 is teaming him with San Hill. San's "ability" to force/allow you to activate only one character per phase means that you will probably get to move IG-88 last, and therefore trigger Opportunist. Conveniently for IG, San is in the same faction as the best Repair piece in the game, Wat Tambor, so there's the core of a squad idea. Unfortunately, while these are probably the best options for IG-88, San and Wat have better options available to them, so I don't think IG will be competitively viable in the foreseeable future.

Overall rating in 100: 2 (Boba Fett, Bounty Hunter can only miss him on a '1,' and only needs to attack him twice) (he might help you against Bane, though)
Overall rating in 200: 2 (he's just not very good)

Mandalore the Indomitable

2007-01-22T19:56:00.000-08:00

In my day (1/7/83), the word "indomitable" meant something. You were either domitable or you weren't, and if you weren't, brother, you were set for life. Mandalore the Indomitable is many things, but he's not indomitable. Not really. Not the way it used to be.

He is an interesting package, though. He's got a big Damage rating of 30 and the ability to use it twice a turn with a respectable-for-a-ranged guy Attack rating of +13. He'll be standing still for that Double Attack, but he does have Evasion to help him avoid counter fire, and the tantalizing possibility of Deadly Attack, meaning he throws criticals twice as often as most pieces, but still not very often.

Okay, so we've got his role clearly defined: he's a cannon that stays well away from the fight. Except for two things, one of them positive and the other negative. The good news is that he's got Momentum, so if someone's starting to sneak up on him, he has the option of hitting them extra hard once. This won't always be the best option, but options are good. The bad news is that he doesn't have Accurate Shot, and there's no legal way for him to get it, so until you clear out the fodder, that giant gun is going to be pointed at Ugnaughts if your opponent knows what he's doing. Hmmm.

The Mandalorians, however, were built to be an extremely synergistic faction. The Basilisk War Droid, with its Strafe ability, is obviously a great way to clear out any fodder in Mandy's way, and perhaps put some damage on the real targets at the same time. Throw in the fact that Mandalore's Commander Effect grants Momentum to the Basilisk, so that all of those lovely Strafe attacks are at +4/+10, and you can see what a loving, supportive faction these guys are.
The Mandalorians are so synergistic, in fact, that Mr. the Indomitable's CE works on every single one of them, including the Mandalorian Commander, whose Mobile Attack-granting CE in turn affects Mandalore. Neat. Mandalore's Momentum trick also does wonders for the Mandalorian Blademaster, who gets both of his Twin Attacks enhanced.

Mandalore is an oddity: he's the most expensive piece in the game who doesn't suffer from Melee Attack, so his stats are lower than you might expect at his cost. He's also one of the linchpin pieces for the most synergistic faction in the game (and the only one who didn't go to the same tailor as all the others).

Overall rating in 100: 2.5 (no room for the rest of his pals here)
Overall rating in 200: 3.5 (will require very careful and clever play, but potentially very powerful; not a piece for beginners)

4-LOM

2007-01-20T20:58:00.000-08:00

I’m not generally a fan of unique Droids, at least not ones with double-digit point costs. R2-D2 can stay (hell, he can take beer out of the fridge without asking), but most of the more expensive unique Droids leave me cold. The reason for this (not that you asked, you self-absorbed churl) is that there are very few ways to build a synergistic squad around them. At this point in the game’s history, there are absolutely no commander effects that work on them, and only a couple of ways to enhance them in any way (Gonk, CS Darth Sidious’ Dark Master ability, Thrawn can give them Force Immunity). This means that any unique Droid has to be an extremely self-contained package, not requiring outside assistance to earn his points for your squad.

The original 4-LOM was one of my favorite pieces in Rebel Storm, and remains one of my favorite pieces today. At 21 points, he’s a shooter that does decent damage at a +16 to hit under the right (not too difficult to set up) circumstances, who also has an 18 Defense and 70 whole hit points. Sign me the heck up.

As a side note, Zuckuss has Rapport with any character with “4-LOM” in the name. This is sort of trivial under most circumstances, but it does mean that Mr. LOM comes down to 20 points, the magic number to be used in Fringe Reinforcements 20 or Fringe Reserves. Nice.

Seriously, 4-LOM, dude. 4-LOM.

Overall rating in 100: 4
Overall rating in 200: 4

4-LOM, Bounty Hunter

2007-01-20T20:57:00.000-08:00

If you read my review of the Rebel Storm 4-LOM, you know that I consider him a tough act to follow. Unique Droids are hard to enhance with support pieces, so they have to be pretty self-contained little units in your squad, and I find the 21-point version of 4-LOM to be an admirable example. I’m still on the fence about this newfangled version.

In most ways, adding the “Bounty Hunter” surname to 4-LOM seems to mean slight upgrades to the same piece. He has 20 more hit points, one more point of Attack, 10 more points of Damage(!), and retains Bounty Hunter +4 and Careful Shot. These bonuses, taken together, are worth maybe 5 or 6 more points to me, but the new piece costs 12 more than his predecessor.

The ability that’s supposed to make up those last points is Paralysis, an ability we’ve seen on several pieces in this and previous sets. It’s a nice little stun effect, allowing you to shut the target down for the rest of the round if they haven’t activated yet, save 11. The key difference is that all the other pieces that have ever had it also have Melee Attack. Furthermore, every other piece in this game with a similar ability has, at most, a six-square range with it. 4-LOM, Bounty Hunter can activate Boba Fett from across the board, and that impresses the heck out of me. I just can’t decide if it impresses me 33 points’ worth.

It occurs to me that Grand Admiral Thrawn is about the best synergy you can hope for with 4-LOM, BH. You’ll almost always have initiative, allowing you to take a stab at activating the important piece before he can go, and you can give 4-LOM Force Immunity by just having him stand near Thrawn’s Ysalimiri field. Importantly, this would mean that any Force-users you try to Paralyze will only get the one chance to save, without any pesky Force Points ruining your fun. I may have to try this one out; I’ll let you know how it goes. The one thing to remember here is that 4-LOM lacks Accurate Shot, so a canny opponent is going to make it hard to target the piece you really want to hit. Bring crowd control pieces to clear out the fodder.

Overall rating in 100: 2.5 (a third of your squad, and hard to support)
Overall rating in 200: 3.5 (can possibly keep a much more expensive piece out of the fight)

Aurra Sing

2007-01-20T18:54:00.000-08:00

If you read my review on Boba Fett, you know that I’m a little puzzled by the “ultimate badass of the galaxy” status that the fan community has thrust on him, but since it happened, it makes sense that his miniature is among the most powerful in the game.

Why then, is Aurra Sing, who appears for approximately three seconds in one movie and is never heard from again, another of the most powerful pieces in the game? I suppose this is a question for the philosophers. I’ll settle for reviewing her.

Anyway, check this out: imagine for a moment that there was a Jedi character in this game with an excellent Defense of 21, very good Hit Points of 130, and a respectable attack of +11 to go with the standard Jedi Damage score of 20. She’s got Lightsaber Sweep as well, and a crazy ability that gives her +4 Attack and +10 Damage against most of the other high-end figures in the game. Oh, and if she holds still, she gets another +4 to Attack, virtually guaranteeing a hit on any of the aforementioned high-end figures. Sounds all right, right? So if she had a cost of, say, 37 points, that would be cool?

Yeah, cool.

The problem is, she can shoot, too. And not in that mamby-pamby, I’m-Kyle-Katarn-and-carry-a-peashooter-that-does-10-at-range-next-to-my-lightsaber way, either. She does her full 20 (30 against Force-users) at range.

Wow, she’s pretty good.

It gets worse. She’s also got Accurate Shot.

Oh, come on! For 37 points? Along with her Jedi Hunter, Careful Shot, I-never-miss-you-ever numbers and abilities, she can choose her target? And this woman was on screen for 3 seconds in one movie that also contained Jar Jar Binks?

I’m afraid so. Add this level of awesome playability to the fact that she’s from the legendarily sold out Clone Strike expansion, and you can start to see why eBay seems to have her around $70 these days.

Geez. I could almost get a case of Universe for that.

Yeah.

Strange-but-true anecdote, by the way: The very first Clone Strike pack I opened contained Aurra Sing, but mine didn’t have any arms. I eventually got her traded into WOTC for a new one, but for a while she made a pretty pathetic sight on the battlefield, running around and killing people left and right with her torso powers.

Overall rating in 100: 5
Overall rating in 200: 5

Boba Fett

2007-01-20T18:52:00.000-08:00

I know I’m not the first to observe this, but what the heck is the big deal about Boba Fett? In the movies, I mean. In Empire, we mostly see him standing around Cloud City, looking not quite as menacing as Vader, and in Jedi, we just see him swallowed by a burping, tentacled hole in the ground. From this we get the most dangerous bounty hunter the secondary canon has ever seen. Thank goodness the prequels at least showed his daddy kicking a modest amount of butt.

Anyway, like it or not, Star Wars fans for the last 26 years have collectively decided that Boba Fett is one of the most dangerous men in the galaxy, and his mini accurately reflects this. Double Attack (as well as its cousin, Triple Attack) is the meat and potatoes of damage-dealing in this game. Boba is one of the relatively small number (ten, to be precise) of Double Attackers who do at least 20 damage per shot and aren’t restricted by Melee Attack. This is a good start.
Accurate Shot is arguably the best ability in the game, since it denies your opponent the ability to decide who you’re going to attack. The only two pieces that have both it and Double Attack are both named Boba Fett. This is still looking pretty good.

The biggest threat to a given shooter in this game is frequently a comparably priced Melee Attack figure, since the Melee figure will generally have better stats. Not only does Fett have very respectable numbers of his own, he also has Flight, allowing him to outmaneuver ground-bound pieces that have to get through or around obstacles, and to ignore attacks of opportunity as an added bonus. This is an amazing finish.

But we’re not quite done, because as the icing on this moist, rich, and oh-so-fattening cake, Fett’s extremely respectable numbers are topped off with the Bounty Hunter ability (duh), which makes his attack against any Unique (and there are very few non-Uniques who are a threat to him) a mighty +16, enough to rival pretty much anyone.

At 50 points, he’s one of the most expensive pieces in the game, but he’s pretty much always worth it. While I may disagree with the need to have made Boba Fett one of the most powerful pieces of the game, it doesn’t change the fact that he is.

Overall rating in 100 points: 4.5 (he is half your squad, after all)
Overall rating in 200 points: 5

Bith Black Sun Vigo

2007-01-20T18:51:00.000-08:00

Okay, let’s just assume that we’ve all made the obligatory Matrix joke about the Bith Black Sun Vigo and move on. The BBSV, as he’ll be known by brevity-conscious players, is a fantastic piece who was recruited by Morpheus to be the Chosen One and deliver humanity from the clutches of the machines – dammit!

With Mobile Attack, Stealth, Evade, and a healthy Defense of 19 with 50 hit points, he’s probably the hardest 20 points your opponent will ever have to kill, especially since he’ll rise from the dead when Trinity declares her love for him – crap!

Advantageous Attack and Twin Attack mean he can actually put 40 points of damage on an unactivated target, despite his humble Damage rating of 10, and Micro-Vision helps him punish enemy Agents that try to get past his Stealth by taking over the code of other imprisoned humans nearby. Sorry; let me get a grip here. I can finish this.

As if all that wasn’t worth your 20 points, he is a Vigo after all, meaning a high-ranking member of the Black Sun criminal syndicate, and naturally has a crime-friendly Commander Effect. In this case, he helps his fellow Stealth units by granting them Evade and eventually dying in a transparent Biblical allegory.

Overall rating in 100: 4
Overall rating in 200: 4.5
Overall rating for the first movie: 4
Overall rating for the sequels: 2

Bodyguard Droid

2007-01-20T18:48:00.000-08:00

Shortly after Episode III came out, my wife (Mrs. Ten-Eyed Man) came out of the shower singing, “I wish I was a guard for General Grievous\That is what I’d truly like to be\’Cause if I was a guard for General Grievous\I’d be the coolest droid in the movie.” Truer words have rarely been sung to a hot dog jingle. The Bodyguard Droid is a terrific piece, befitting the way cool Jedi-fighting, staff-spinning, head-not-needing droids from the movie.

For 20 points, you get 60 more hit points to plug into the character of your choice, which is exactly double both the cost and the extra hit points for the Twi’lek Bodyguard (reviewed Monday). However, Bodyguard Droids go on to also double the Damage statistic of the alien pole dancer, as well as the Attack value (the Defense, while not doubled, is a healthy 3 points higher). Lightsaber Resistance pushes the Defense a little higher against the premier melee combatants of the game, which is a nice bonus.

This is all very well and good, but the ability that really makes the Bodyguard Droid incredible is the other really obvious one in his name: Droid. As a non-Unique droid for the Separatists, the coolest droid in the movie can reap handsome rewards like Double Attack, Careful Shot (useable on melee attacks despite the name), a total of +8 Attack from Fire Control and Supreme Commander Grievous, and the Repair 20 ability of Wat Tambor. Faction synergy just oozes off these guys. Supported correctly, a couple of them can be attacking twice per round at a +20 to hit (Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter may only need a ‘4’ to hit them, but they would only need a ‘3’ to hit him) (in your helmeted face, Vader!).

Finally, no discussion of the Bodyguard Droid would be complete without mentioning the Destroyer Droid. This is where the Separatists can really make use of that Bodyguard ability, because, as we know from the Destroyer Droid review a few weeks ago, the only problem with those guys is their low Hit Points. If you can plug in an extra 60 (which will still get all the benefits of Shields 2) (huzzah!), you’re doing well. If those extra 60 hit points can also fight, benefitting from the same stat boosts that you wanted for the Destroyer already, so much the better.

All in all, the Bodyguard Droid is a great buy. They can be used to defend other pieces, or they can be a key part of your own offense, using their eponymous ability to spread the damage between them and keep any one from getting eliminated.

Overall rating in 100: 4
Overall rating in 200: 4.5

Emperor Palpatine, Sith Lord

2007-01-20T18:46:00.000-08:00

First of all, I just want to say that I love this piece. When the Revenge of the Sith set first came out, I happily told my friends who were Star Wars fans but didn’t play the game about the Betrayal ability, and they loved it, and I hoped against hope that Sith Palpatine could become a tournament mainstay.

It wasn’t meant to be, though. Sith Palpatine is good, but he’s since been pretty much overshadowed in terms of Imperial monsters by Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter.
His numbers are solid, but not stellar (mostly a Defense issue; at 62 points, you expect something higher than 20). You also sort of expect a +16 attack (though that’s as high as the game currently goes, so one shy is maybe forgiveable).

As with many Jedi and Sith types, it’s the abilities that really set Sith Palpatine apart. Triple Attack is pretty much a gimme in a 60+ point figure, but he’s got it. He also has a whopping six Force points, which is still not as good as having four and Force Renewal, per his other version. Lightsaber Assault is fantastic, allowing serious mobile offense, and Sith Lightning gives you some guaranteed damage (though I will usually choose Lightsaber Assault, since it does more damage at a lower Force cost, with the important down side that it can miss).

The above abilities are all very useful, but not all that interesting. Fortunately, Emperor Palpatine, Sith Lord has not one, not two, but three tricks up his billowing sleeve that are completely unique in the game. The previously mentioned Betrayal, while it doesn’t go off all that often, does mean that your opponent will always have to think twice about his attacks. Consider that if Obi-Wan, Jedi Master wants to make a Lightsaber Assault on Palpatine, there is almost a 10% chance that he’ll turn to the Dark Side and not be able to spend another Force Point to reroll. Given odds like that, many players will instead have Obi-Wan just walk up and attack once, saving that Force Point as a safety net. Betrayal is not remotely as useful in terms of “a thing that happens all the time” as it is a “thing that scares your opponent into making bad decisions.”

Execute Order 66 is a weirdly different ability. Where Betrayal is all about gambling and odds, Order 66 is all about guarantees, with the big guarantee being that if your opponent is playing a clone or AT-RT squad, you’ve got a guaranteed win. The idea that a pretty large number of figures, some of whom are the best shooting options the Republic has, simply can’t target Sith Palpatine, makes it easy to see why serious tournament play doesn’t really include clones.
Which is why Palpatine’s Commander Effect is sort of a mixed blessing. Once again, it’s a trick unlike anything else in the game, because it allows you to mix factions, but only with pieces that will be completely crippled if you go up against another Emperor Palpatine, Sith Lord.
This, then, is the strangest thing about Sith Palpatine: he’s one of the most metagame-dependent pieces in the game. If your local environment involves a large number of Order 66 pieces, then you’ll do very well with him (though it might be a dull game). If your local environment involves a lot of Sith Palpatine, however, you might not want to use him (or at least not use his Commander Effect). As a pure beatstick, you can do better with either Darth Vader, Sith Lord (two points less) or Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter (13 points more). As a “reinforce everyone in your squad while doing a bunch of direct damage piece,” you should use the original Emperor Palpatine from Rebel Storm. As a “keep your opponent guessing and have some really memorable games” piece, you can’t really do better at all.

Overall rating in 100: 2.5
Overall rating in 200: 3.5
Overall rating in fun, casual games: 5

Grand Admiral Thrawn

2007-01-20T18:38:00.000-08:00

Undoubtedly the single best commander in the game, Grand Admiral Thrawn has almost singlehandedly changed how squads work. Before Universe, competitive squads virtually always consisted of a few powerful Unique pieces, with Stormtroopers and such existing mostly to fill in the last few points. With the coming of the new commanders in Universe (especially Thrawn), it’s much harder to discount the value of fielding an army of faceless grunts.
So what exactly does the Grand Admiral bring to the table? Let’s go point-by-point:

Initiative control. Unless you roll a “1,” you are considered to have won the initiative roll. This is even better than it seems, because on the rare occasions you do lose initiative, your opponent will probably not be in a position to exploit that (since they’ve been assuming you’ll win every round). The only reason to be concerned about losing initiative, really, is if you’re up against another Thrawn squad.
Force Immunity. Every character within 6 squares of Thrawn gains Force Immunity (under the current FAQ ruling). This not only protects against Force Lightning and the like, but more importantly prevents the use of defensive powers like Lightsaber Deflect against the attacks of anyone in the bubble.
Grunt buff. +3 Attack and +3 Defense to all non-unique followers within 6 squares. This is not only amazing, but it’s one of only two CEs in the game that improve Defense (and Yoda, Jedi Master only gives a +2). What makes this just ridiculous is that Empire’s Defense numbers tend to be pretty good. With Thrawn, you can have a 5-point Stormtrooper in cover with an effective Defense of 23.
Position swap. This ability is unlike anything else in the game. It’s an offensive maneuver, letting you run a Gran Raider up to an enemy piece, then swap him for a beatstick. It’s a defensive move, pulling a wounded piece back towards the healer. In your more sophisticated squads, it can also be used to get a Momentum or Charging Assault piece back away from its poor victim without drawing an attack of opportunity. It’s simply incredible all the way around.
Decent numbers. For an essentially noncombatant commander, Thrawn has very respectable numbers of his own. His +12 to hit and 80 hit points mean he can trade blows with mid-range threats and come out on top (though he really shouldn’t, unless the situation is dire). True story: The first time I played with Universe pieces was a sealed tournament in which I was lucky enough to pull Thrawn. The game eventually came down to my Thrawn versus my opponent’s Naboo Flash Speeder, and Thrawn won. This is just one of the many reasons why the Grand Admiral is a common sight in competitive play, while the Flash Speeder isn’t.

Grand Admiral Thrawn is one of the most important pieces in the game, and will likely continue to be so for a good while.

Overall rating in 100: 2.5 (he does take up more than a third of your points, which makes it difficult to get the support you need)
Overall rating in 200: 5